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Doug Domenech, the Interior Department's Assistant Secretary for Insular Affairs, violated federal ethics regulations when he met with representatives from his former employer, the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Interior's Inspector General released a report detailing how Domenech, who was at the time a special government employee as part of the Trump administration's "landing team," twice met with the organization. The TPPF had filed two lawsuits against the Interior Department over endangered species listings and discussed the suits with Domenech during the meeting. Shortly thereafter, Interior settled the lawsuit—an outcome TPPF celebrated as a “major win for private property rights.”
“This is now a familiar pattern: time and again, Trump appointees at the Department of the Interior think the rules don’t apply to them, and they act accordingly,” said Senator Tom Udall. At least five other political appointees at Interior remain under investigation by the Inspector General, including Interior Solicitor Daniel Jorjani, who oversees the Interior ethics office.
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Interior Secretary Bernhardt has known about Domenech’s ethics violations for months, but Domenech is still on the job. Clearly there are no consequences for helping former employers get what they want, because that is the example Bernhardt sets across the entire agency.”
